| | 28 letters relate to lifestyle - clothing... | Excerpt length: shorter longer | |
| Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(c. 27 August 1888)
... and
even more original.
About my clothes, certainly they were beginning to be the
worse for wear, but only last week I bought a black velvet
jacket of fairly good quality for 20 francs, and a new hat, so
there is no hurry.
But I consulted that postman I painted, who had often
furnished and refurnished his little home moving from place to
place, as to the approximate price of the necessary furniture,
and he said that you could not get a good bed here which would
last for less than 150 francs - if you want to get something
substantial, of course.
However, that hardly upsets the calculation that by saving
the money spent on lodging, at the end of a year we should find
ourselves in possession of some furniture, without having spent
any more during the year. And as soon as I can, I shall not
hesitate to do it.
If Gauguin and I do not take the opportunity to fix
ourselves up like this, we may drag on year after year in small
lodgings where we cannot... | Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(c. 21 April 1889)
... of 10 francs or
so for moving, etc.
Then as my clothes were not in too brilliant a condition and
I had to have something new to go out in the street in, I got a
suit for 35 francs and spent 4 francs on six pairs of socks. So
out of the note I have only a few francs left, and at the end
of the month I must pay the landlord again, though he might be
kept waiting for a few days.
I settled my bill at the hospital today, and there is still
almost enough for the rest of the month out of the money I
still have on deposit. At the end of the month I should like to
go to the hospital in St. Rémy, or another
institution of this kind, of which M. Salles has told me.
Forgive me if I don't go into details and argue the pros and
cons of such a step.
Talking about it would be mental torture.
It will be enough, I hope, if I tell you that I feel quite
unable to take a new studio and to stay there alone - here in
Arles or elsewhere, for the moment it is all the same; I... | Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(c. 15 December 1889)
... which will make another 10 francs or so.
As for winter clothes, I haven't got anything much, as you
will understand, but they are warm enough and then we can wait
till spring for that. If I go out, it is to work, so I put on
what is most worn, and I have a velvet jacket and trousers for
wearing here. In the spring, if I am here, I intend to go and
do some pictures in Arles as well, and if I get something new
at about that time, it will be enough.
I am enclosing an order for canvas and paints, but I still
have some, and it can wait till next month if this is already
too much.
I remember the picture by Manet you speak of. The
“Portrait of a Man” by Puvis de Chavannes has
always remained the ideal in figure to me, an old man reading a
yellow novel, and beside him a rose and some watercolour
brushes in a glass of water - and the “Portrait of a
Lady” that he had at the same exhibition, a woman already
old, but exactly as Michelet felt, There is... | Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh
(10 or 11 February 1890)
... Gauguin or Lauzet by giving up the journey.
Recently I bought a suit, which cost me 35 francs. I must pay
for it toward the end of March; with that I shall have enough
for the whole year, for when I came here, I bought almost the
same kind of suit for 35 francs, and it has lasted me all year.
But I shall need a pair of shoes and some pants in March
too.
All things considered, life is not very expensive here, I
think that in the North we should spend somewhat more.
And that's why - even if I came to you for some time - the
best policy would still be to go on with the work here.
I don't know - either way seems good to me - but we mustn't
be in a hurry to change.
And don't you think that in Antwerp - if we carried out
Gauguin's plan - it would be necessary to maintain a certain
position, to furnish a studio, in fact to do as the greater
part of the established Dutch painters do. It isn't so simple
as it looks, and I should fear, for him as well as for me, a
regular... | Newspaper article by Anton Kerssemakers
(14 April 1912)
... near the front windows of the
waiting room, and there he was sitting, surrounded by this mob,
in all tranquillity, dressed in his shaggy ulster and his
inevitable fur cap, industriously making a few little city
views (he had taken a small tin paintbox with him) without
paying the slightest attention to the loud disrespectful
observations and critical remarks of the esteemed (?) public.
As soon as he caught sight of me, he packed up his things quite
calmly, and we started for the museum. Seeing that the rain was
coming down in torrents, and Van Gogh in his fur cap and shaggy
ulster soon looked like a drowned tomcat, I took a cab, at
which he grumbled considerably, saying, “What do I care
about the opinion of all Amsterdam, I prefer walking; well,
never mind, have it your own way.”
In the museum he knew where to find what interested him
most; he took me chiefly to the Van Goyens, the Bols and the
Rembrandts; he spent the longest time in front of the
“Jewish... |
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